


Cause for Concern

by Obsessive_Fantasy



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: AU Biohazard, Accidents, Action & Romance, Blood and Gore, Disasters, Eventual Romance, F/M, Minor Octavia Blake/Lincoln, Research, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Sweet, quarantine au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-17
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-05-08 06:21:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14688297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Obsessive_Fantasy/pseuds/Obsessive_Fantasy
Summary: Clarke Griffin prided herself on being calm in emergency situations. Bellamy Blake was always able to take control in emergency situations. But when an accident at their place of employment threatens the safety of not only them but their friends and family, they can only hope some will make it out alive.





	1. The Accident

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally a one shot for a prompt I found.... And like every time I try to do a one shot, I get sucked down a hole of possibilities of story plot. I've also been watching a lot of quarantine thrillers so that more than likely was my motivation.

Clarke Griffin prided herself on being calm in emergency situations.

Before the accident, she was working on a new project that was given to her by one of the RAs. She had looked over the file and noted that this was another experimental drug for an unknown disease. Her assignments were usually easy, she just had to get the chemical equation started and do the initial testing process. The reports never described the disease they were trying to cure, it just told her what the objective was. She had almost completed the initial testing stage, when the alarms started blaring throughout the building. At first she thought this was a drill but then an automated voice started ringing in her ears, “CONTAMINANT… ALERT UNCONTROLLED CONTAMINANT… PLEASE GET TO THE NEAREST SAFETY ROOM….”

The automated voice kept chanting as she and a few colleagues made their way to Safety Room A. One of them wouldn’t stop complaining about how the company made us take too many precautions. Another one was annoyed at the fact that they needed to get out of there by five for a “hot date”.

Clarke was relieved to see the closed door of the safety room and immediately withdrew her access key card, waving it over the screen. It flashed green and a mechanical lock suddenly deactivated.

* * *

The bland, pale room was getting more and more claustrophobic as people were being led inside. People from every department in their sector were being crammed inside the small safety room. Clarke, being one of the first people to get to the safety room, had found refuge in one of the office chairs. This was the first time she had ever been in a quarantine situation, and she admitted to herself that she had had better days.

She looked at the clock and it read four in the afternoon. People were going to start getting irritated once five rolled around and this matter wasn’t sorted. And she was going to be in the middle of all of it.

She didn’t see her mom, Abby Griffin, or any other official managers which made sense because all the upper management was on the opposite side of the labs and research section. She hoped everyone was safe but especially her mom. She was sure Abby was fine since the leak happened on the very opposite side of the building, but Clarke was still concerned of course.

She knew there was a total of ten disaster rooms for this reason, one for each department. If something hazardous were to happen, management constructed these rooms to go to for protection. Even though everyone now thought this was such an inconvenience, it was a very important thing to have access to when you worked in a research lab.

Polis Incorporated was a huge research lab, funded by the government to find cures for uncommon diseases and better medicines to help various cancers go into remission. Clarke, a recent college graduate, had been brought onto the team as a research analyst assistant a few months ago. That title meant exactly what it sounded like, she assisted the research analysts with whatever they needed. Science equipment, maintenance phone calls, Vanilla iced coffee-no whip-nonfat-triple expresso. The projects came later when assistants proved their usefulness.

The team she currently worked with, for the most part, weren’t jerks. Some were a little more serious about their jobs than most but other than that, they all made a good team.

Of course, Clarke’s mom being top dog of the Medical research branch, did undermine her credentials with the other employees. Especially when the news had broken out of Clarke’s soon to be promotion. The first month of her internship had been hard and she fought more battles than she would have liked. But after working with her, most of her colleagues had noticed that she was in fact qualified for the job. Others who didn’t work with her on a regular basis still had their gossip and false opinions.

“Great, I have to be stuck in here because someone didn’t follow protocol.”

“They can’t hold us in here past five, we have families to get home too. They have to let us go.”

“This is all bull shit. It’s probably not even toxic.”

Clarke rolled her eyes at the various employees complaining about the “unnecessary” security protocols. Rules were made for a reason. Until the proper people could rule the threat out as a possible hazardous contaminant, they could hold them in the safety room for hours if they wanted too.

 Once the last person was crammed into the safety room, she noticed Miller (one of the security guards) was the last one to come into the cramped room. He closed the door, flashing his key card over the screen of the lock which triggered a loud metallic sound, signaling the lock had activated. The blaring alarms and automated voice chanting in the hallway could still be heard through the thick walls of the room.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see one of her close colleagues standing behind her. Clarke swiveled in the chair, “Raven… What happened? I heard you were in the room where the gas leaked.”

Raven nodded, “Yeah, it was pretty scary seeing a white cloud of death coming right for us, but I feel fine. I was the first person to grab a gas mask out of the emergency bin. Monty was right behind me and the one who sounded the alarms which could have saved all our lives depending on what that was.”

Clarke noticed the small, quiet man at Raven’s side and smiled at him. Monty responded with an awkward wave.

Clarke tuned her attention back to Raven, “You have any idea what it could be?”

Raven shook her head, “No clue. You’re the research analyst, your guess would be more accurate than mine in this situation.”

“Assistant. I’m not the one who saw it. Can you describe it?” Clarke asked.

Before Raven could recall the scene, a sudden loud banging outside the door snatched all their attention. It was frantic and loud enough to be heard over the alarms.  

“Let me in!” A gruff male voice yelled through the door.

It was hard to make out what he was saying but it helped that everyone had immediately silenced one they heard the knocking. The pounding continued, and the voice yelled, “If you don’t let me in, people are going to die! This is Bellamy Blake, Sector E.”

At the sound if his name, Clarke immediately stood from her chair and made her way to the front, “Miller, you have to let him in.”

Miller’s conflicted expression aggravated Clarke, “It’s Bellamy! Let him in.”

“Security protocol states that when the last person arrives, we don’t open this door. Especially if a threat is app-“Miller’s announcement was cut short when Clarke, with unknown strength, shoved Miller out of the way.

“This is Bellamy. Our friend.” Clarke quickly grabbed her key card and swiped it over the automatic mechanical lock, a green light showing that the door had been unlocked. Bellamy had clearly heard the lock disengage and busted through, running into Clarke as he made his crazed entry.

He would have knocked her down too, but his hands instinctively grabbed her arms, steadying her. A few more people followed behind him before the door closed and locked again. Clarke did not like Bellamy’s facial expression, a combination of dread and horror. She could tell he was about to tell her something, but Miller broke the moment, “Bellamy, what the hell?! You’re supposed to be in the west wing safety room with Sector E employees.”

 Bellamy took one last look at Clarke and removed his hands that had still been holding her in place. He turned to the security guard, clearly distraught and at a complete loss for words.

At this time, Clarke suddenly noticed Bellamy was covered in blood. It was all over his guard uniform and some even on the back of his neck. Clarke suddenly looked down to see red smears on her forearms, left behind from his hands when he had caught her. It felt like they were the only three in the room as they all looked at each other with confusion and worry.

Clarke finally broke the silence and asked, “What happened?” 

Bellamy cleared his throat and turned to Clarke, his face grim. At that moment, Clarke wondered if she really wanted to know the truth. Everyone in the room was so silent except for the continuous blaring of the alarms outside. Bellamy took a deep breath, “Whatever was released into this building, it’s a fucking nightmare.”


	2. A Cry for Help

Octavia Blake tapped a pen on her desk incessantly, her eyes darting every so often to the main doorway of the police station. Indra had said she was going to be late but not absent the whole entire day. It was unlike Indra to be this unresponsive, especially when it concerned work. Octavia stopped tapping her pen, the comforting noise ceasing, as she grabbed her phone from one of her drawers. It was against company policy to be on your cell phone during work hours, but Octavia didn’t care.

Her phone showed no missed texts from Indra. No missed phone calls either. Octavia stared blankly at the screen and quickly unlocked her phone, touching the MSG icon, her thumbs about to start typing.

“Hey, the research facility is under lockdown.” One of her partners yelled, tuning on the TV.

Octavia’s heart skipped a beat as she got up from her desk, cell phone still in hand. Her brother worked in that building. She was sure it was being handled but that unnecessary fear that crept into her mind couldn’t be shoved back. Everyone soon was looking at Octavia, since pretty much everyone knew about her brother being a security guard at the facility. Octavia ignored the many stares aimed in her direction and watched the news report, hand squeezing her cell phone so tight she just might break it.

_“The Polis building is under full lockdown after an unknown contaminant started pouring in from the vents. Reports say that it started in the control center and then slowly started to leak into other areas of the buildings. CDC was immediately contacted and deployed after they got word that every employee was in their designated safe area. They are now in the building investigating what kind of threat this is, if any threat is actually apparent.”_

Octavia watched as choppers circled the building, filming the outside of the large structure.

“I hope they’re okay.” A voice said behind her.

Lincoln. Octavia peered over her shoulder and then brought her attention back to the TV Screen, “My big brother can handle it.”

The television reporter suddenly came back on the air with a breaking new broadcast, “Breaking news, it seems the CDC has reported that there is no threat in the building. They say it was just a harmless gas and that everything is under control.”

Octavia cocked an eyebrow at the screen, “That was quick.” Lincoln’s eyes fell on Octavia then darted back to the TV Screen which had now cut to commercials.

Octavia shook her head and smiled, “See, told you. Nothing Bellamy can’t handle.” She turned around to look at Lincoln who had an unsure look in his eyes. “What?”

Lincoln looked back up to the TV but decided against what he was thinking, “Nothing. Wanna grab dinner after work today?”

Octavia nodded with a smile plastered on her face, “Of course.”

* * *

Complete chaos.

Some were yelling at Bellamy, ordering him to tell them what he meant by his statement. Others were trying (but not succeeding) in getting a signal on their cell phones to call for help. Even Raven and Monty were both looking at Clarke and Bellamy, their imploring eyes hoping one of them would speak.

It was a hectic craze and Clarke wasn’t sure she’d be able to calm anyone down. She was in the same boat as everyone else. She wanted Bellamy to elaborate but she also knew he was not in a state of mind to start calmly talking about what he had witnessed. Judging by his attire covered in an unknown person’s blood, it wasn’t something that was going to be easy to give or receive.

“Can you idiots just shut up and let the man breathe?”

Clarke looked over to a man standing on the far side of the room. John Murphy was leaning against the wall, looking bored with the situation, “Him telling us isn’t going to matter if we’re safe in here. So, find a piece of wall and shut the fuck up.”

Everyone seemed to quiet a little, but one woman accusingly said, “We deserve to know what’s out there.”

Clarke looked at Bellamy who hadn’t taken his eyes off her the whole entire time. Clarke knew this because their eyes met instantly, the pleading look in his eyes clawing deep into her heart. Clarke didn’t know what to say to him. The man looked like he had gone through hell and back and she didn’t feel right forcing him to speak. But on the other aspect of things, he would have to tell them sooner or later. They had to know what was outside that door.

As if Bellamy read her mind he cleared his throat again, “I don’t know what I saw. It all happened really quick. I had everyone in Sector E and was going through the necessary protocols when suddenly I heard screaming in the hallways. I figured someone was having a panic attack or something, so I went to see if I could help… There were so many of them.” Bellamy took a small pause, as if just recalling the event was painful enough.

“So many what?” Miller asked, looking from their audience then back to Bellamy.

Bellamy shook his head and in a pained tone replied, “Bodies.”

A hush fell over the room again, faces changing from curiosity to panic very quickly. Bellamy continued while others were quiet, “One woman… I tried to save her…”

He grimaced, clearly not wanting to remember the trauma he had just experienced. Clarke could clearly see the strong man was crumbling right in front of her and it was hard for her to watch. Before she could think about the tens of pairs of eyes on them, she walked up to him and put both delicate hands on top of his broad shoulders. It only took a few seconds for him to realize Clarke’s hands were on him, his chestnut brown eyes met her soft blue ones and she felt him relax in her grasp slightly.

Clarke spoke but her voice was barely above a whisper, her words shaky like an autumn leaf on a tree limb, “What were you trying to save her from, Bellamy?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments ALWAYS make me super happy :) 
> 
> I know it's short but I'm trying to make every chapter not super long like I have in the past. Don't worry, answers will be revealed ;)


	3. Pandora

Clarke knew Bellamy was having a tough time with her question. It certainly didn't seem like an easy one to answer but he finally responded after a couple of moments of getting his thoughts together, “I don’t know. I was helping her walk, and something grabbed her. I had my gun out but it was gone before I could… It just dragged her off…”

She nodded in response to his answer, “It’s okay, Bellamy. You tried to save her. You did a lot more than most would have in your position.”

He looked up at Clarke and even though his face was still pale, her hands could feel his muscles in his shoulders relax underneath his jacket.

“I want them out!”

Clarke hands immediately left Bellamy’s shoulders as she turned around to see what was happening behind her. Clarke’s attention turned towards the sound of the voice and couldn’t believe her eyes. A man from the group pushed Monty into Raven causing her to almost trip over one of the office chairs. Thankfully the woman had great reflexes and righted herself before she started to fall. Miller was trying to restore order, but the group was closing in on them like an angry mob.

“No one is going anywhere.”

Clarke peered behind her shoulder, recognizing the gruff authoritative voice behind her. She was relieved to see Bellamy somewhat back to his old protective self.

Another research analyst piped up from the advancing group, “They’re control panel workers. That’s where the gas leaked first. They’ve been exposed.”

Raven and Monty had made it close to the door which happened to be where Bellamy and Clarke were still standing. Miller was backing up as well and kept shooting Bellamy worried glances, clearly not knowing what to do.

Clarke stood out in front of the group in a protective manner, a determined expression plastered on her face. She locked eyes with the man who seemed to be leading the assault and his eyes glared back at her. Before they got to close to Clarke’s group she spoke up and got the attention of the room, “We are not throwing them out. We don’t even know what this is.”

The man leading the distressed side of the room spoke up again, “Whatever it is, it’s spread through that gas. And it’s clearly not just a plague if he says something took that girl from him.”

Clarke’s eyes flashed to the man’s name tag clipped onto his lab coat. It read Carl Emerson, Senior Research analyst. Her eyes flashed back up to his, “So, you think this is some kinda Zombie virus?”

Emerson seemed to catch onto Clarke’s belittling tone because he started advancing towards her and her friends, “I don’t need to be talked down to by some privileged, unqualified assistant.”

Before Emerson got a few feet closer to Clarke, she heard a gun being unholstered. She didn’t have to look behind her to know Bellamy had withdrawn his gun and was holding his aim on Emerson.

“That’s close enough.” Bellamy growled out defensively. Miller had followed Bellamy’s lead and withdrew his gun but was aiming it at the rest of the crowd. The room became so silent all they could hear were the still incessant alarms outside the room. No one moved a muscle, but everyone was on high alert and the air was tense.

Clarke dug her fingernails into her sweaty palms, “No one needs to get hurt.” She looked from Emerson to the rest of the group behind him, “It’s possible that when everyone was going to their designated safety rooms, the test room wasn’t secured properly.”

Emerson looked at her incredulously, “You think test rats did this? You think a rat can grab a woman form a security guard.”

“No… But a monkey could.”

Judging by some of the surprised and disgusted reactions she got in response, not many people knew the department was going to start testing their untested vaccines on newly acquired chimpanzees. That information was only known by the upper management… and one of the manager’s daughters.

The idea of testing on animals was barbaric to Clarke. She agreed that some things were necessary for the exploration of science, especially if it meant saving lives. But no matter how many lives were saved, it still did not make the act of testing on defenseless animals moral. She had told her mother over and over that the animals were not necessary for testing since technology was growing more advanced by the day. Simulation tests were becoming more real and test animals were thankfully becoming less needed. But the overall branch manager thought otherwise.

“Monkeys?” Emerson scoffed, “Great. We’ve got man eating monkeys out there.”

Clarke rolled her eyes, “I didn’t say that… I’m just saying we shouldn’t jump at the idea of removing people from the only safety they have just on a whim of infection.” She looked over to Raven who was keeping her attention on Emerson, “Even if there are no wild animals involved and it is an airborne virus, Raven and Monty were the first ones to put on gas masks. Not to mention, they’re not showing any signs of a virus. No fever. No physical signs of sickness. Nothing.”

Clarke started noticing people nodding in agreement and starting to stand down from their mob type formation. Her shoulders relaxed but she noticed Emerson still wasn’t budging. He seemed to still be challenging her, his jaw locked in a defiant scowl. Bellamy was still aiming his weapon at Emerson even though Miller had holstered his, “Just go sit down somewhere. It’s over.”

Emerson took one more look at Clarke, Clarke staring back with the same amount of intensity she was receiving. His hateful gaze left Clarke and flashed to Bellamy who was also staring right back at Emerson. Clarke didn’t know how long this standoff would last but after what seemed like hours of tense silence Emerson turned and stalked back to an unoccupied office chair.

Clarke turned her attention back on Bellamy. He had lowered his weapon, but his unwavering focus was still on Emerson. She hesitantly reached out, wrapping her fingers around his wrist slowly, “Bellamy, it’s okay.”

Bellamy started at her touch but relaxed when his eyes met with hers. Clarke nodded in reassurance and he nodded in return, finally holstering his weapon. His shoulders were still tense as he said, “I don’t trust him, Clarke.”

“I don’t think anyone does… But if we can keep everyone else calm, I don’t think we’ll have a problem.” Clarke realized she was still lightly gripping Bellamy’s wrist and immediately released him, trying not to seem embarrassed by her complete lack of awareness. Bellamy didn’t seem to notice.

People were immediately falling back in their original conversation groups. Everyone was still upset and fearful, but no one was being hostile towards each other. Clarke had tried to get a signal on her phone, but she figured the thick walls of the safety room were blocking any sort of signal getting through.

She looked up from her phone and had not noticed Raven standing beside her. Clarke gave up on trying to get a signal and instead tuned her attention to the woman beside her, “You okay?”

Raven nodded, “Thanks for doing that, by the way. I would have told him off myself, but I was completely thrown off by everyone coming at me with torches and pitchforks.”

A small laugh erupted from Clarke’s lips, “Anytime. We just need to keep the peace until everything is taken care of.”

Raven nodded in agreement, “You really think it’s wild monkey’s out there?” Her tone was skeptical, but Clarke could tell she was generally curious for her thoughts like always.

“I can’t say for sure.” She looked over at Bellamy who was now conversing with Miller. “I’ve never seen him that shaken up and he’s had a few close calls.” She sighed turning her attention back on Raven, “It makes the most plausible sense that someone was careless with the locks on the cages and the monkeys escaped. I don’t think they’re exactly domesticated.”

Raven’s face changed, her upper lip curling in disdain, “I wouldn’t be either if I was being injected with diseases against my will.”

Clarke couldn’t help notice the accusatory tone in Raven’s voice, “I told my mom to make them stop. They just think it’s more cost efficient using animals than buying “expensive” innovative technology.” Raven’s disgusted look intensified and Clarke spoke before she started going off on one of her signature rants, “It’s cruel, I know Raven. But one obstacle at a time.”

Raven turned her attention away from Clarke and surveyed the still distressed people in the room, “Okay, but you best believe I’m going straight to the asshole myself with this information. They’ll lose their star mechanic over this, I’m not kidding.” Raven was in full command mode and Clarke couldn’t help but admire the woman. She had so much strength and confidence, willing to risk everything for her beliefs.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from you Raven Reyes.” Clarke smiled, receiving a smile in return from the intelligent woman beside her.

* * *

 

The city’s streets were so alive with activity, groups of people crowding the side streets as they walked up and down the strip. The weather was perfectly mild, the overall temperature was not too hot and not too cool. There was not one cloud in the sky and the sun’s beautiful evening rays shone brightly on Octavia’s ivory skin, her emerald eyes shining.

Octavia was picking at her dinner, glancing every few moments at the blank screen of her phone. Indra had finally gotten back to her and reassured her she was fine, just busy with a case downtown. Bellamy, however, had not answered any of her texts or phone calls and now she was getting worried. The news reports were saying there was no cause for concern but yet, here Octavia was… Concerned.

Lincoln seemed to notice her worry and slid his hand across the picnic table and grasped her hand that was unoccupied, “He’s fine.”

Octavia gave a small smile in response, “I guess. It’s just not like him, he was supposed to be off duty two hours ago.”

Lincoln nodded, “He may have had to stay later. Maybe to go over security protocols.”

Octavia looked back down at her phone and nodded. For the rest of the dinner she tried to stay present for Lincoln’s sake, but her mind kept wandering to her big brother that still hadn’t replied to her texts.

After their dinner, Octavia invited Lincoln back to her place. It took an hour or so for her to fall asleep but with Lincoln’s strong arms holding her against his chest, his rhythmic breathing finally lulled her into a deep sleep.

Later that night she was awoken by her phone’s shrill ring. She looked at her digital clock and it read right after 1:00 AM. Her hand blindly reached for her phone on her nightstand, dragging herself out of Lincoln’s embrace to answer the phone call.

An incoming phone call from an unknown number showed on her phone screen. Even though normally she would let an unknown number go to voice mail something told her to answer it, “Hello?” Her voice was gravelly and sounded full of drowsiness.

A distorted broken up voice came in reply, “O…. We need…. Trouble…. Octavia?”

She recognized the voice immediately, “Bell? Bellamy? I can’t hear you.” Octavia jumped out of bed and immediately started walking around the room, getting dressed. Lincoln had awoken at this time and was clearly alerted to Octavia’s rummaging through the room.

“…dora.” There was a shrill screech and a loud roar before the call immediately dropped. Octavia growled in frustration and after a few failed attempts to call the number back she shoved the phone into her pants pocket.

Lincoln was still sitting up on the bed, clearly drowsy from being suddenly jostled out of his deep sleep. He followed Octavia’s movements as she opened the drawer of her nightstand and withdrew a handgun and a few clips along with it.

“What is it Octavia?” Lincoln asked as she practically ran into her closet, a loud metallic bang sounded through the open doorway. Before Lincoln could investigate he was surprised to see Octavia emerge from the closet with a shot gun in her arms and a semi-automatic rifle slung over her shoulder.

“What the hell-“

Octavia tossed a handgun in his direction and he caught it by the grip, still in complete astonishment. “Look we can talk in the car or you can stay, but my brother needs me.” Octavia finished her sentence by turning to leave the room.

“Octavia, at least tell me what he said.” Lincoln pleaded as he started to pick his clothes up off the floor and dress himself. Octavia stopped in mid step, almost at the threshold of her bedroom.

“He said Pandora. It’s code between us for emergencies in case either of us were in trouble.” Octavia turned slightly to Lincoln, her eyes filled with desperation, “Bellamy has never used that word before because it’s supposed to mean ‘come quick because I think I’m about to die’.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know. What the hell. But this is all in good fun, right? I can't just give you all the answers at once. I know! How 'Jason Rothenberg' of me lol  
> I'm having so much fun with this. Even if I am a novice.  
> Comments and Kudos appreciated <3 :)


	4. Lights Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am horrible. The 100 Season 5 kinda took over my life so I wasn't really writing that much, but now that we're on show hiatus I need my fill of Bellarke/ The 100 creativity. I'm keeping chapters short but I am going to be writing on a regular basis now and updating regularly. Hope you enjoy!

Clarke could feel the tension growing thicker and thicker as time slowly crept by. She also could feel her control of the group lessening each hour they were confined in the bland, pale room. It had been almost three hours since the chaotic incident with Monty and Raven but there was still no news about what was happening outside of the room they were all being kept in.

 Judging by the impatient scowl on his face, Emerson was not going to stay quiet for much longer. And the last thing Clarke and her friends needed was another immature outcry in a 250 square foot room. The harsh man’s cruel gaze locked on Clarke’s and she held his blistering stare, not wanting to show any type of weakness to the jerk across form her. Finally, Emerson shook his head and decided to turn to one of his colleagues and start murmuring (more than likely swears and insults about the blonde research intern across the room from him).

Clarke dragged her attention from the distasteful man and surveyed the people around the room. Everyone was calm but a handful of people were getting antsy, talking to their friends and theorizing that they were going to be kept in this room forever. One of the men emphasized his statement by saying that no one was going to come get them. Her eyes fell on John Murphy, who had been standing amongst the panicking clique.

Clarke could hear him snort with laughter and say, “Look, I don’t have much faith in the company either but we will get out of this room. It’s a government facility; the military will get involved once this gets too out of control.” Murphy slung his arm around the shoulders of one of the men who seemed the most worried, “Besides, as long as we are in here, nothing can get to us from out there.” Murphy withdrew his arm from the man’s shoulders and made his way to the opposite side of the room closest to the door.

Clarke noticed Murphy’s pep talk actually helped calm that section down somewhat.

A deep, gravelly voice sounded beside her, “He’s good.” Bellamy had come to stand beside her, resting his back against the solid wall behind them.

Clarke looked up at him from where she was sitting on the ground, a notebook nestled snuggly in her lap, “Yeah, didn’t expect that from John Murphy.”

Bellamy chuckled, “Well rumor has it he’s seeing someone. Pretty serious too. He’s not that much of a dick anymore believe it or not.”

Clarke shook her head as she went back to drawing her detailed map of their section and surrounding sections of the laboratory, “I guess anything is possible.”

There were a few moments of silence between them as Clarke was finishing up her replica of their section of laboratory. Almost satisfied with her well drawn out map, she snuck a glance from her drawing and noticed Bellamy had been watching her for some time. Bellamy averted his eyes when he realized he had been caught and cleared his throat.

“Didn’t know you could draw.” Bellamy told her, surveying the rest of the room, purposefully not looking at her.

Clarke smirked at his uncomfortable embarrassment, “Yeah, it’s one of my many talents.” Clarke really hadn’t meant it to sound so flirty but Bellamy brought his attention back to her, side eyeing her with his lips slightly upturned in a small smile, “Oh really, Princess?”

Clarke normally would hate the nickname being uttered from anyone else’s lips, but from his it was almost playful and endearing. She returned his smile but went back to completing her map. There was a time and place for harmless flirting, and unfortunately this wasn’t it.

“I got it!” Raven exclaimed from across the room.

 Raven and Monty had been working on their cell phones to try and get a solid communication line which Clarke would have deemed impossible but the pair had worked miracles in the past before. She remembered one time when the entire mainframe in the control room had been fried and management suspected people would be out of the job for weeks until everything had been repaired.

And that would have been true, if they hadn’t had the Reyes-Green dynamic duo on their team.

Raven had come over to crouch by Clarke with everyone’s eyes on them but before she could utter the first syllable of her explanation the power immediately shut off.

First the blaring alarms outside the room ceased immediately and then the lights in the room flickered before ultimately going out.

_‘Here we go again’_ Clarke thought to herself as the eruption of gasps and alarmed conversation made its way around the room. A few people took out their phones and activated the flashlight application for light, Bellamy and Miller withdrew their handheld flashlights from their waists and turned them on.

Clarke pulled herself from the ground, tucking her notebook between her arm and her side, but before she could try to regain order of the room she heard the sharp sound of the automatic, mechanical locks on the doors deactivating.

Clarke looked to Raven and Monty, confirming that they also had heard the locks disengage. Raven lowered her voice as she stared at the door, “So, that’s not supposed to happen unless somebody qualified has shut the power off from the control room.”

Clarke shook her head, “Why the hell would someone shut the power off?”

Bellamy looked over his shoulder and countered, “How did someone even get to the control room?”

Raven looked at Bellamy who was still trained on the door and then brought her attention back to Clarke, “It was either one of the control room workers or management. Those are the only people who have the access to shut the power down. I’m just not sure why any of those people would do that though. “

Murphy who had been listening in on their hushed conversation, got up from where he was sitting and walked towards them, “Maybe it’s safe to go out.”

Raven turned towards him and shook her head, “I don’t know why they would have shut the power off to let us know it’s safe. They would have used the intercom system to tell us.”

Clarke nodded in agreement, “If anything, whoever shut the power off, has put us in more danger than we already were.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said, I'm back for the long haul so expect regular updates, I'm no longer leaving people high and dry I PROMISE (as long as I finish this fic before Season 6 comes on lol)
> 
> Kudos and Comments rock my world!


	5. The First Encounter

_Thump. Thump. Thump-Thump._

At first, Clarke thought it was the sound of her own heart beating against her chest but she saw everyone’s attention drawn to the sounds echoing outside the door as well. She listened to the noises intently while everyone else was quiet for the time being. It sounded to her like heavy footfalls or someone (or something) just mindlessly slamming against the wall of their safe room. The thumps came in sporadic order and had no rhythm, almost like one of her drunk roommates coming home from a “major rager” of a party.

She also inferred there had to be more than one person or _thing_ making all the noise. It was a solid safe room but now that the alarms were shut off she could hear almost everything around the outside of the room. She immediately heard the dull faraway sound of something metallic being thrown to the ground but at the same time the thumping against the wall of the room was still consistent.

She couldn’t tell how many there were but there were at least two beings out in the hallway.

Roma, a petite research analyst with dark brown hair, was the first to interrupt the silence, “How come we’re just now hearing this?” Her voice was shaking with unease and false confidence. Her eyes were on Clarke and Raven, pleading for them to answer.

“The alarms were drowning the sounds out. This has probably been going on for a while.” Raven’s voice was also low but loud enough for most of the room to hear her.

Immediately after Raven’s explanation, one set of thumps got rougher and closer. It was the same thing that had been throwing itself into their wall. It had either gotten bored with incessantly running into one spot, or it could hear them in the room even though they had all been talking barely over a whisper.

Clarke had been so wrapped up in watching the door, she hadn’t noticed Bellamy’s body protectively standing mostly in front of her. His gun unholstered and aimed directly at the door, his focus unwavering.

_Thump. Thump-Thump-Thump. BAM!_

A series of thumps were followed by a huge sudden mass slamming against the door of their safe room. Right after the collision, a few of the employees screamed in horror. If it didn’t know anyone was in the room before, it sure had some sort of an idea now.

Emerson harshly whispered, “Shut the fuck up, all of you.” His voice filled more with terror then anger.

It was too late though, the handle of the door slightly jiggled and Clarke could have sworn her heart was trying to escape her body it was beating so hard. No one rushed to grab the door, it was like everyone was frozen in fear.

The unknown entity made one final effort to push the door open, which allowed it to finally enter the room. Gasps and shocked expressions littered the room as one of their fellow research scientists stepped in. It was too dark for anyone to identify exactly who the man was but he had a lab coat over a shirt (dress code for all RAs). After the door closed behind him, he staggered forward one step but stopped. The young man just stood there with his head down, ever so often he would twitch unnaturally and make a soft moaning sound.

After a few moments of the figure just standing there and twitching, he finally raised his head to look at the group. Miller, who was on the other side of Bellamy, shined his flashlight. The flashlight’s beam starting at the unknown man’s feet, his nice brown shoes were splattered with what looked like mud but had too much of a red tint to it to be just mud. It was blood.

The flashlight only lingered there for a second and then made the rest of its way up the man’s body. It didn’t take long for Clarke to realize that not only were his shoes covered in blood, but his clothes were drenched in it as well. The once eggshell white fabric of his lab coat was now a murky rusted toned color and only little sections of his white button-up dress shirt had been spared of the massacre. But as Miller’s flashlight trailed up to his face the room of people immediately scampered backward in abrupt fear.

The boy’s mouth was covered in blood. So much blood that it was pooling out the sides of his lips every time he made that chilling groaning sound.

After the initial shock of the scene in front of her, Clarke recognized the man. She was almost certain she knew who it was. “Riley?” she hesitantly asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

The man’s head turned to stare at her, but it was not in a way Clarke was expecting or hoping he would. His expression was blank and expressionless, as if the only reason he acknowledged her presence was the sound of her voice, not the name she had spoken. After months of taking extra credit work accompanied by her mom in the medical wing of the facility, a sudden urge to help the disturbed individual made her push past Bellamy. She was standing outside of the mass of people that were huddled to the back of the room but was still a safe distance from Riley. Bellamy growled out her name, but she waved him away as his hand tried to grab her elbow and pull her back.

“He may just be in a deep state of shock.” Clarke explained over her shoulder.

She turned her attention on Riley and smiled at him, “Hey Riley, it’s Clarke. Clarke Griffin.” Riley hadn’t stopped staring at her with that blank expression, but a low, monotone growl came from the back of his throat. Clarke went against her gut feeling to step back and instead stepped closer to him, “I need you to sit down and rest. You’ve been through a traumatic-“

With a vicious growl, Riley immediately hurled his body into Clarke’s with extreme agility and strength. She grunted as his body collided with hers, throwing her to the ground and knocking the breath out of her. Riley was on top of her, teeth bared like a wild animal about to strike its prey, but before he could inflict the first attack a loud bang rang throughout the room. Riley’s body slumped on top of Clarke’s, the weight of Riley’s body forcing more oxygen out of Clarke’s chest.

Not more than a few seconds later, Riley’s body was removed from hers and strong arms brought her up in a sitting position and held her. She was still stunned but she knew instantly who was clinging to her. Bellamy was on his knees beside her, cradling her head to his chest which was heaving from the left-over adrenaline trapped in his body.

“I had to do it, Clarke. He was going to… And I couldn’t let that happen. Not again. Not you.”

His words came out in a panicked slur and once she got her bearings straight she brought her arms around his waist, reassuring him that he had done the right thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, two chapters in one week. And I already have so many other chapters in pending status. I'll probably post the next one in a few days from now. Next chapter has A LOT of explanation in it so hold tight!!!


	6. Autopsy

The tender embrace between Clarke and Bellamy came to an end when Raven knelt beside the lifeless body who once belonged to a promising research analyst assistant. Clarke stared at him, thinking to herself that that could have been her if events had played out differently. She felt a hand caress her shoulder and she didn’t have to turn her head to know it was Bellamy trying to give comfort to her.

The body was lying flat on its back which gave both women an easy angle of examination. Clarke was still feeling a little disoriented from the events that had just transpired, but after a few deep and slow breaths she was starting to normalize. She crawled over to where Raven was and stared at the body, not knowing where to start.

“Hey, I need a light.” Raven ordered as she looked over to Bellamy and motioned for his flashlight. He flicked the switch to turn it on and handed it over to her. She shined the light on Riley’s face and kept it there as Clarke made her observations.

Raven looked to Clarke and then back at Riley’s body, “This is more your field of expertise than mine.”

Clarke bent forward, lifting his eyelids higher than they already were, “Bloodshot and dilated…” Clarke noted out loud. She slid two fingers down to his pulse point on his neck. After keeping her fingers there for about ten seconds she confirmed that Riley no longer had a pulse and was in fact, dead. Clarke then withdrew her fingers from the body and pointed to her lab coat hung over an office chair in the room, “Can someone grab my gloves out of that lab coat? Should be in the front pockets.”

Miller, being the closest one to the piece of attire, walked over to it and grabbed it off the chair. He rummaged through the front pockets and revealed a clean pair of latex gloves.

He handed them over to Clarke, still looking horrified by the body that was laying in the middle of the floor. Raven smirked at his reaction while Clarke was putting on the gloves, “It’s okay, he doesn’t have a pulse. Calm down.”

Miller took a brief look at Raven and then immediately back to the body, “Nah, I’ve seen this in a movie before. No head shot. No kill.”

Raven rolled her eyes, the sound of Clarke snapping the last glove onto her right-hand echoing throughout the room, “This isn’t a movie, Miller. This is reality.”

Miller scoffed, “You don’t have to remind me, Reyes.”

Clarke gave a small smile as she brought her hands to the button up shirt on the corpse’s body. With one sharp tug, the pristine shirt gave to Clarke’s pressure and ripped open. The action caused a couple of his buttons to skitter across the floor during the process. She examined every inch of his exposed skin, “Well none of this blood seems to be his and I don’t see any bites. It’s got to be the white gas that was coming through the air vents.”

Clarke bit the inside of her cheek, her thoughts going a mile a minute through her head. Just when she was about to get up from the floor, Raven shined the flashlight from his torso to his neck.

 “What about that bruise?” Raven asked.

Clarke focused on where she was shining the light and lightly touched the spot. The spot was a small localized dark purplish area on the left side of his neck. While she was still examining it, Clarke sighed, “I don’t know. He could have banged his neck on something out there. He could have…” Clarke stopped as she noticed what appeared to be a little needle sized hole located right in the middle of all the discoloration.

“Is that what I think it is?” Raven whispered in confusion.

Clarke shook her head slowly, “It’s a fresh injection. If this had happened a week, or hell, a couple of days ago it would have been healed by now. And I also don’t know many injections that are administered through the neck.”

Bellamy spoke up, “Someone injected him with something? But the contaminant was a gas coming through the vents… How does that make sense?”

Clarke slowly got to her feet and started removing her gloves, “It doesn’t. But until we figure this out, we are going to need at least two people on that door. We don’t need another incident like this happening if we can help it.”

Bellamy nodded, “Me and Miller will take first shift.”

Raven and Clarke nodded in agreement and as the two men went to take their positions they both stared questioningly at the body.

Raven broke the silence between them, “Maybe he got stabbed by something accidentally. We don’t actually know if that is an injection wound. We didn’t see what happened. It makes more logical sense for it to be the gas…”

Clarke nodded slowly but Raven could tell the blonde woman was skeptical of the wound on the body’s neck. Raven sighed and quickly changed the subject, “So at least one thing is for sure, that gas that leaked into this building has something to do with making people get very aggressive. Like a rabid dog.”

Clarke eyes shot to Raven, “What did you say?”

Raven was confused by the urgency in Clarke’s voice, “What? Rabid dog?”

Clarke nodded, “Rabies. It explains the unpredictable aggression, bloodshot eyes, fever…”

As if the sound of the disease triggered something in Riley’s body, a white foamy substance started pooling out of his mouth. The white mixed with the blood that had already resided in and around his mouth which made a thick red colored foam leak down his chin.

“And foaming at the mouth. Someone has engineered a strain of Rabies to effect people the same way it would effect a coyote or raccoon.”

Raven smirked, “Have I ever told you that you’re the smartest research analyst I know?”

Clarke gave a slight smile in response, “Yes, you have.” She walked away from the body and to the large desk in the middle of the room. She picked up her notebook and looked at the map she had drawn. She flipped to a blank page and started noting anything they had already solved and questions that were still unanswered.

She had just started making a list for the unanswered column when incessant banging started on the door. Her attention was immediately jostled to the door. Both men were holding onto the door handle as the person on the other side tried opening it.

Clarke’s heart felt like it was in her throat again. What if another one of them got into the room? What if more than one got into the room? Bellamy and Miller only had so much ammunition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More chapters on the way, I'm having so much fun with this prompt even if it was just supposed to be a one-shot.  
> As always, Kudos and Comments are always appreciated :)


End file.
